The room was completely empty.
When Hiiragi Yu woke again, a deep, bone-weary exhaustion weighed down his limbs. His vision swirled with blurry shapes, and his mind struggled to grasp where he was. He groped around the bed until his fingers tangled in a soft, white blanket. Sliding it back, he revealed a pale blue and white striped hospital gown.
Then, his memories returned in a rushing tide.
He remembered the harsh, burning scent of high-proof liquor, his desperate run down the corridor, and the towering silhouette of the man he had collided with.
Had that man saved him?
His thoughts were a tangled mess, and his body began to throb with a delayed, aching heat. Pale with sudden panic, Hiiragi stumbled out of bed and rushed into the bathroom. Standing before the mirror, he pulled down the loose collar of the gown.
The garment was oversized, making it easy to see the faint bruises or rather, hickeys, mottling his collarbone and chest.
His mind went entirely blank.
Was it that man?
Hiiragi tried to recall the stranger’s face, but even the slightest effort triggered a sharp, agonizing throbbing behind his temples. He couldn’t tell if the pain was an lingering effect of the alcohol or whatever medication they had given him.
He stepped back into the room, his chest heavy with dread. Thankfully, his phone lay untouched on the bedside table, offering a small anchor of security.
As he picked it up, something slipped from beneath it and clattered to the floor. Hiiragi winced at the stretch in his sore muscles, bending down to retrieve it. His fingers froze the moment he saw what it was: a thin, sleek black bank card.
He couldn’t tell if the man had dropped it by accident or left it on purpose.
He set the card back down, his mind spinning. Had he… left this for me? Why?
Before he could process the thought, his phone vibrated twice against his palm. Hiiragi pushed his questions aside and swiped the screen open. A torrent of unread messages flooded the screen, all from Pan Wang.
【Come back! Get your ass back here right now!】
【Where do you think you can run to?】
【Just you wait, don’t come crawling back on your knees begging me for mercy!】
【I’m warning you, Young Master Zhou is furious. You’d better pray you die out there and reunite with that bastard mother of yours!】
The wall of hostile text felt like a invisible hand gripping his throat, cutting off his air. Instinctively, his thumb flicked down to the bottom of the chat log.
The last message had been sent a day ago.
【Your bastard sister is turning out to be much tougher than you.】
The single sentence chilled him to the bone. Ignoring the dull ache in his body, Hiiragi grabbed his phone and bolted out the door.
It was mid-day, during the hospital staff’s lunch break. He encountered virtually no one in the quiet hallways and easily hailed a cab outside the main entrance.
The driver glanced at his striped gown through the rearview mirror, suspicious. “Hey kid, did you break out of the ward?”
The sharp bite of cold air cleared Hiiragi’s feverish head slightly. He hesitated, opened his mouth, and pointed to his throat to indicate he couldn’t speak. He quickly pulled up his phone notepad and typed. No, there’s an emergency at home. Please drive fast, I’ll pay extra.
Seeing the offer of extra cash, the driver slammed on the gas. The aging taxi surged forward like an arrow, merging swiftly into the thick afternoon traffic.
A few minutes into the drive, Hiiragi suddenly realized he hadn’t left any contact information for his savior at the hospital. But when he glanced out the rear window, the surrounding city streets were unfamiliar, a district he had never visited before.
The hospital was long gone.
Hiiragi pressed his lips together. Although he hadn’t seen the man’s face clearly in the dark, he vividly remembered the terrifying pressure of his presence, along with his own blurry, desperate breakdown, where even his sobs had been smothered by the intensity of the encounter.
He was certain the stranger was a high-level Alpha.
Still… he helped me. No matter what happened between them, it was vastly better than letting Zhou Hui and Pan Wang get their way.
He lowered his gaze, forcing the terrifying thoughts of the past few days to the back of his mind as he focused solely on reaching his sister.
Meanwhile, in an upper floor office at the hospital, a doctor wearing gold rimmed glasses leaned back in his leather chair. Looking every bit the pristine medical elite, he cast a slightly teasing glance at the tall Alpha sitting across from him.
“I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first?”
Cheng Shenzhi shot him a cold, unamused look.
Xu Jianqian immediately raised his hands in dramatic surrender. “Alright, alright. The good news is that your sudden rut has officially passed.”
Cheng Shenzhi’s dark brows knitted together. “And the bad news?”
“The bad news…” Xu Jianqian paused intentionally, waiting until he saw the edge of impatience in Cheng Shenzhi’s eyes before delivering the line. “The kid isn’t an Omega.”
He leaned forward, carefully observing the reaction of the man opposite him. Although Cheng Shenzhi maintained his usual composed facade, the slight tremor in his dark pupils betrayed his inner shock.
Silence stretched across the office before Cheng Shenzhi finally spoke, his voice low and measured. “Why did my rut come early?”
“Who knows?” Xu Jianqian shrugged carelessly. “Alphas and Omegas and everything in between, are inherently unpredictable. Maybe you ran into someone with an extraordinarily high pheromone compatibility rate that night. You know how rare that is, anything over 90% can trigger a sudden spike. Or maybe it’s just backfire from suppressing your ruts with force for all these years. Could even be a reaction to that expired inhibitor…”
He paused, offering a wry grin. “Personally, I bet on the second option. Every day, I thank my lucky stars my parents made me a Beta.”
Cheng Shenzhi ignored his banter entirely. “How is his health?”
Xu Jianqian’s playful expression faded slightly. He pushed a thick stack of medical charts across the sleek wooden desk. “Pretty terrible. See for yourself.”
Cheng Shenzhi picked up the report, his eyes scanning down the rows of fluctuating indicators. The abnormal blood panels made his eyelids twitch. Recalling his own wild loss of control that night, a heavy pang of guilt settled in his chest.
He stood up abruptly, tucking the file under his arm. “Your project application is approved. I’m taking the report.”
His phone buzzed repeatedly with work notifications, but Cheng Shenzhi paid them no mind. He decided to visit Hiiragi Yu’s ward first. He had already ordered his assistants to investigate the boy’s background, uncovering the dark truth behind what had transpired that night.
What a loving older brother. What a devoted father.
Perhaps due to the lingering residual connection between them, Cheng Shenzhi felt a rare surge of sympathy for the boy he had briefly claimed.
However, when he pushed open the heavy door to the recovery room, he was met with total silence.
The bed was neatly made, but empty.
Cheng Shenzhi’s pupils narrowed. He closed the distance in long strides and pressed his hand against the mattress. It was cold, the occupant had been gone for a while.
His gaze shifted to the bedside table. Resting squarely in the center was his black card, left behind without a trace of hesitation.
The taxi eventually ground to a halt at the edge of a wealthy suburban district. Hiiragi Yu paid the fare and hurriedly stepped out onto the pavement.
The moment his feet hit the ground, a sharp, aching soreness shot through his lower body. He winced, forcing himself to move past the pain as he adjusted his stride and pressed onward.
The Pan family villa was located on the outer ring of the estate. The gatekeeper was visibly startled to see Hiiragi returning in a hospital gown, but offered no comment, simply pressing the button to let him through.
The familiar, oppressive environment swallowed him once more. Hiiragi took a quiet breath, his spine automatically tensing as a instinctual tremor ran through his body. Still, he forced his legs forward.
The main foyer was eerily quiet. Even the household staff were nowhere to be seen, allowing Hiiragi a momentary beat to breathe. But before he could fully relax, he felt a sharp, hostile gaze locked onto him from above.
He raised his head a second too late, meeting the cold eyes of Pan Wang, who stood leaning over the second floor balcony railing.
The instant their eyes met, Pan Wang let out a harsh sneer and violently hurled an object down at him.
Hiiragi instinctively wanted to dodge, but the thought of his sister stopped him in his tracks. He stood his ground as the heavy glass grazed his shoulder, cutting through the thin fabric of his shirt with a sharp sting before shattering into pieces on the marble floor.
“Where the hell have you been gallivanting around for the past three days?” Pan Wang barked, pacing down the stairs like a predator. He circled Hiiragi with a mocking grin. “Out getting used by a few random Alphas?”
Hiiragi stood frozen, his fingers trembling beneath his long sleeves as he glared at his stepbrother without blinking.
Pan Wang scoffed, taking another slow lap around him. After satisfying his urge to humiliate him, he casually added, “Since you were out fooling around for three days, your little sister decided to follow your great example. Are you satisfied with that answer, dear brother?”
He looked Hiiragi up and down. His useless stepbrother hadn’t been home for three days and nights, and had returned wearing an unidentified hospital gown. Pan Wang didn’t know and didn’t care, which facility it belonged to. The weakling was always running to the hospital anyway. What else was he good for besides burning money?
As Pan Wang reached out, his eyes caught a faint, dark mark peeking out from beneath Hiiragi’s loose collar.
Having indulged in his fair share of nightlife, Pan Wang recognized the nature of the mark instantly.
Realization struck him, quickly turning into utter disbelief. It explained why Young Master Zhou had been putting pressure on the family business over the last forty-eight hours.
“You’d rather let some nameless scumbag mess around with you than serve Young Master Zhou? Have you completely lost your mind?” Pan Wang spat, stepping forward to roughly grab Hiiragi by the collar.
“Xiao Wang! What do you think you’re doing?” a heavy, middle aged voice barked from the hallway.
Pan Youzhi stepped into the foyer. Under his father’s stern gaze, Pan Wang clicked his tongue in annoyance, violently shoving Hiiragi back before turning on his heel to head back upstairs.
Pan Youzhi turned his attention to his second son, his tone deceptively mild. “Your brother is an Alpha, it’s only natural for his temper to be a little explosive. Don’t go provoking him.”
Hiiragi was thoroughly sick of hearing the same defensive speech. Ignoring the comment entirely, he stared directly at Pan Youzhi, rapidly signing with his hands to ask where his sister was.
Pan Youzhi blinked, looking utterly bewildered. “What?”
It took him several seconds to realize Hiiragi was asking about his daughter.
In Pan Youzhi’s eyes, the family hierarchy was simple. Pan Wang was an Alpha who would eventually inherit the family enterprise. Hiiragi Yu, though a mute Beta, possessed an exceptionally striking face with a little grooming, he could easily be traded off to secure a high-value alliance.
Only his daughter was entirely useless. She didn’t have Hiiragi’s beauty, nor did she have the academic standing to bring prestige to the family name.
Despite his cold calculations, Pan Youzhi maintained a gentle facade. “Isn’t she usually staying at school? Why are you asking me?”
Hiiragi Yu closed his eyes, a profound sense of exhaustion washing over him. Without another word, he turned his back on his father and headed straight for the front exit.
Pan Youzhi’s forehead creased in displeasure. “Where do you think you’re going?”
Hiiragi didn’t pause, nor did he look back.